I would like to thank you for allowing me to provide kai on Friday the 20th of May at your collaborated exhibition ...
As part of our course outline and a field trip for BCA2 I had the opportunity to visit our Lectures collaborative exhibition at the St Pauls St Gallery an exhibition that I had the privilege of seeing on opening day.
My end project is based around social practice, public share and photography so I quietly jumped at the chance to make, provide and serve kai within a gallery setting as a hands on practice for my end of term project.
As a rule I will always work from the amount of people who I am feeding and then add extra for those who need extra feeding and incase there just happens to be be "guests"
I took in account that our group are hearty eaters, that we love food so whatever i need to make it needed to be filling.
I also took in account that I have a budget and that chicken is a prefered meat.
With a budget of $10 per person $170 in total and a chicken inspired menu in mind (one of the dietary requirements) this is the menu I came up with and one that I thought would cover all grounds.
MENU
Chicken and Vegetable Noodle Soup
Ham, Egg and Salad Club Sandwiches
Chicken, Salad and Mayo Rolls
Salmon, Cucumber and Salad Rolls (5 only because we had extra rolls)
Chicken Sausage Rolls
with tomato sauce
Sausage Rolls
Banana Cake with Cream Cheese or Chocolate Icing
Chocolate Biscuits
Fresh Fruit
Orange
Mandarin
Apple
Bottled Water
Fruit Juice
Tea
Coffee
Milo
This menu was achievable, there was nothing difficult to buy or make.
I also thought whatever wasn't eaten could be hopefully eaten or taken home by fellow M.I.T FoCA students.
Photo Credit: Heni-ana Karanga
The Banana cake was made and iced the night before and the soup was made with the addition of the noodles to be added the next day.
All the salad vegetables were pre-cut and bagged and the egg was mashed ready for making sandwiches and rolls.
The morning of was a little hectic but with the help of my Mother in Law all the sandwiches and rolls were made.
A mental note to myself remember to bring plastic wrap, baking paper, hand towels, tea towels, apron,dishwashing liquid, dish cloths, cutting board, sharp cutting knife, scissors, chilly bag for milk, and defrosted sausage rolls extra serving plates and bowls.
Packing the car was a juggle but I got there and even with the addition of passenger we made it to the gallery ALL FOOD IN TACT!
With the help of my fellow students and lecturer everything ran as smoothly as it could possibly go.
But I'm not going to lie there were a few hiccups along the way.
* Don't make other plans no matter how good they are the night before an exhibition you will have to make up time somewhere.
* It is not ideal to be going to bed at 1am in the morning, the morning of the exhibition it will cause you to lie awake worrying you might've forgotten something.
*How is the food going to travel? You can't stack sandwiches on top of each other unless you want to serve squished sandwiches.
*Full pots of soup MUST travel on the front passenger side of the floor causing less to no spillage - remember NOT to overfill your soup pot.
*Have prior knowledge of parking and how to parallel park (thanks Rebecca)
*Have prior knowledge of the kitchen you are wanting to use :D
I was very lucky to have a few students taking photos on the day unfortunately I did not direct or let them know what kind of photos I wanted so this is something I will take in consideration.
The soup was a hit, and although I had 3 packets of sausage rolls I felt everyone would've appreciated more.
There was a lot of fruit, biscuits and cake leftover but the feedback was that most people had filled up on the other food.
As this was not a catering project I again was pleased how it turned out. I had a conversation with Harriet Stockman from Public Share and about the work they do. Another conversation I had was with a fellow student who'd told me they had never eaten home made soup before or that he could remember which I found extremely strange.
Photo Credit: Kendra Leilua
Photo Credit: Kendra Leilua
